THE PRODUCT AND OF THE OIL REGIONS OF Pennsylvania and New York. BY CHARLES A. ASHBURNER, M.S., Geologist in Charge Pennsylvania Survey, PHILADELPHIA. Read before the American Institute of Mining Engineers, at the Halifax Meeting, September, 1885. Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library With the Compliments of CHAS. A. ASHBURNER, GEOLOGIST IN CHARGE. Please acknowledge receipt to 907 Walnut St., Philadelphia. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/productexhaustioOOashb THE PRODUCT AND EXHAUSTION OF THE OIL-REGIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK. The petroleum industry of western Pennsylvania and south- western New York has been one of phenomenal development. Greater and more sudden fluctuations have occurred in the price* of crude oil, and in all the collateral interests, dependent upon its pro- duction than in the case of any other mineral product which has been extensively exploited in the United States. This was more particu- larly so from the commencement of drilling for oil in 1859 down to the end of 1877. The experience gained during these early years has enabled the oil men to operate more intelligently since ; the business is not now attended with the hazardous risks with which it is generally credited. The most important questions connected with the oil industry are those of (a) the oil-supply, and (6) the possible ultimate exhaustion of the field. Since 1876 my attention has been directed to the study of the statistics of the product of the oil regions. In January, 1880, in order to show some interesting points connected with these ques- tions, I prepared a graphic chart which was used to illustrate a lecture on petroleum delivered before the Franklin Institute. This chart was afterwards reconstructed in two distinct forms for publica- tion in the census report on Petroleum and its Products. These latter I have redrawn in a condensed form, and have extended them to include the statistics up to 1885, for publication in the Transac- tions of the Institute, in conjunction with a map of the oil-regions * The average price of crude oil for January, 1863, was ten cents a barrel. This was the lowest monthly average ever attained ; the highest monthly average was $12,122 per barrel for July, 18G4. The lowest yearly average was 78| cents for 1882, and the highest $9,872 ft> r 1864. The average price of the entire product to January, 1885 (260,990,435 barrels), has been $1.63£. A barrel of petroleum is always considered to contain forty-two gallons. 1 fioici/o THE oil-ui:<;ions of Pennsylvania and new yoke. prepared by Mr. John F. Carl! and myself. It is hoped that thesp illustrations will be found interesting to the members of the Institute, and of practical utility to oil-men without any extended disenssion, since it is my desire to make only such brief references to them and give such additional detailed facts as may serve to make the promi- nent features understood. For convenience of reference, during the past few years, the individual oil-pools of the region have been grouped under six prominent districts, as follows: 1. Allegany district includes the Richburg and several small outlying pools in Allegany County, N. Y. The area which has proved productive oil-territory is 31 square miles,* of which the Richburg field embraces an area of 28 square miles. The Allegany district up to January, 1885, produced 15,000,000 barrels, an average of about 419,000 barrels per square mile. 2. Bradford district embraces the oil-pools in central and north- ern McKean County, Pa., and southern Cattaraugus County, N. Y. The area of productive territory in this district is 133 square miles, 121 square miles of which is included within the Bradford field proper. The sand from which the oil in the Allegany and Bradford districts is obtained -consists of a gray, black, dark-brown or choco- late-brown colored sand of about the coarseness of the ordinary beach-sand of the New Jersey coast. The interval between the top of the oil-sand and the bottom of the Olean conglomerate (the bottom member of the Pottsville conglom- erate, Xo. XII., or Millstone grit), which is one of the most per- sistent and best recognized geological horizons in western Pennsyl- vania, is, at Bradford, 1775 feet. The oil obtained is dark amber-green and occasionally, black. Its gravity is generally slightly greater than that of the oil mostly obtained throughout the Venango and Butler districts, which is generally stated at about 48 degrees. * The territories of which the areas are given here were defined by arbitrary lines, drawn to include all the surface where producing wells have been obtained or which was known, from actual drilling up to .January, 1885, to be underlaid with oil. All the individual pools are shown on the accompanying map; the areas of some of them have been slightly exaggerated in order that they might be observed on a scale of twenty-five miles to one inch. A map on a scale of six miles to one inch, showing, with approximate exactness the areas of the pools, will appear in the annual report for 1885 of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. The total area of all the productive oil-territory in Pennsylvania prior to 1885 was 369 square miles. THE OIE-REGIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK. 3 4 THE OIL-REGIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK. The Bradford district up to January, 1885, produced 109,000,000 barrels, an average of about 820,000 barrels per square mile. 3. The Warren district comprises the oil-pools in eastern Warren County and north-eastern Forest County, Pa. The total area of the productive territory in this district is 35 square miles. The two largest pools are the Clarendon, in Warren County, which covers an area of about 14 square miles, and the Cooper and Sheffield, partly in Warren and partly in Forest, covering an area of 9 square miles. The oil in this district comes from sands of varying geological horizons, having somewhat the general appearance of the Bradford and Allegany sand, but frequently coarser-grained and sometimes containing small pebbles, which latter I have never known to have been found in the sands of the other two districts. According to Mr. Oarll, the depths of the Warren district oil-sands below the Olean conglomerate are as follows: North Warren sand, 1100 feet; Warren third sand, 1300 feet; Clarendon third sand, 1450 feet; Cherry Grove third sand, 1625 feet; and Cooper (Forest County third sand, 1850 feet. The Cooper sand is supposed to occupy the same geological horizon as the Bradford and Allegany sand. The Allegany, Bradford, and Warren district sands I believe to be of Chemung' (Devonian) age. The oils from the different Warren pools vary greatly in color and gravity ; but they are gen- erally spoken of as amber oils. The Warren district, up to January, 1885, produced 12,000,000 barrels, an average of about 343,000 barrels per square mile. 4. The Venango district, which was the scene of all the earlier oil developments, includes 40 distinct and well-recognized oil-pools, the total area of which is 65 square miles, the largest pool being that lying between Oil City on the south and Pleasantville on the north, covering an area of 28 square miles. No one of the other pools exceeds an area of 5 square miles, which is about the productive territory covered by the Tidioute and Triumph pool in southwestern Warren County, and the Franklin pool in western Venango County. The oil of this district is obtained from three principal sand-beds, known respectively as the first, second, and third oil-sands, con- tained within an interval of 350 feet. The first sand, which is the uppermost one of the three, lies about 450 feet below the base of the Olean conglomerate. The Venango sands I believe to belong to the Catskill (Devonian) formation No. IX. These oil-sands were the first discovered in Pennsylvania ; and drillers from this field, op- THE OIL-REGIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK. 5 6 THE OIL-REGIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK. crating in other districts, have designated the sands which were found in the new districts as the first, second, and third sands, irrespective of their relative geological position. The Venango sands generally consist of a white, gray or yellow pebble-rock. The pebbles are water-worn, are sometimes as large as hazelnuts, and are loosely cemented together, and generally bedded in fine sand. The sand in this district has not as regular or as homogeneous a character, over extended areas, as in the Bradford and Allegany fields, where the sands are phenomenal in this respect; consequently, the risk of obtaining dry holes and wells of variable production in the Venango district has always been greater than in the Bradford and Allegany. The oils are generally green, frequently black, and in some instances amber. The gravity varies from 30 to 51 degrees, 48 degrees being about the average gravity of the oil obtained from the third sand, which is the greatest producer. The Venango district up to Janu- ary, 1885, have produced about 55,000,000* barrels, an average of about 846,000 barrels per square mile. 5. The Butler district has been made to include the oil-pools in Butler and Clarion Counties and south-eastern Venango County. The total area of the oil-pools is 84 square miles, of which at least 76 square miles are embraced in the Clarion, Butler and Armstrong field, and the Butler cross-belt, The oil in this district comes from the same group of oil-sands as in the Venango district. Certain splits occur in the sands, however, which have not been discovered in the Venango district. The character of the sands and the oils which they produce vary much the same as in the Venango dis- * The Venango district, up to June, 1882, produced an aggregate of 53,o69,0()0 barrels. Since that date the reported production of this district has been included in that of the Butler and Beaver districts, so that the estimated aggregate product of the Venango, the Butler, and the Beaver districts respectively, to 1835, is only approximate, although the total product of the three districts, composing what is now known as the Lower Field, has been obtained from actual reports. All the figures given in this paper have been based upon the statistics which have been published monthly in Sto well's Petroleum Reporter, with one exception ; the aggregate produc- tion to 1885 of the Beaver district, which has been compiled from various sources, is greater than that given either in the Petroleum Reporter or on the accompany- ing chart, showing the annual production of the individual districts. Mr. Carll has prepared a ''Statistical Chart of the Oil Production in Pennsylvania and New York from 1859 to 1882," which is published in the "Survey Report on Warren ( Jounty." The statistics contained on Mr. Carll's chart have been collected by him from various sources; I believe them to be more accurate in detail than any which have ever been published, they differ but little in their general conclusions from those reported by Mr. S. II. Stowell, which latter have been much more con- venient to use in this connection. THE OIL-KEGIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK. 7 trict, the individual oil or sand in one district having a counterpart in the other district. The Butler district, up to January, 1885, pro- duced about 69,000,000 barrels, an average of about 821,000 barrels per square mile. 6. The Beaver district includes the two principal oil-pools known as Slippery Rock and Smith's Ferry. The former pool and that portion of the latter east of the Pennsylvania State line cover an area of about 16 square miles; the area of the Slippery Rock pool being about one-fourth that of the Pennsylvania portion of the Smith's Ferry pool. In both of these pools heavy oil is obtained from the representative of the Pottsville conglomerate, No. XII. and amber oil from the Berea grit in the Sub-carboniferous series. The production of oil in this district up to January, 1885, was about 1,000,000 barrels, an average of 62,000 barrels per square mile. Outside of the limits of these districts a small amount of oil has been found in isolated pools to the south and southeast of the Beaver and Butler districts ; at Mt. Nebo, in the vicinity of Pitts- burgh ; in the vicinity of Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland County ; near the mouth of Dunlap Creek in Fayette County; along White- ley Creek, west of Mapletown, and along Dunkard Creek north of Fairview, both in Green County ; and in the vicinity of Washington, in Washington County. That the general boundaries of the oil-regions of Pennsylvania are now well established, there is but little doubt ; and that all the sands in which oil will ever be found in paying quantities are known and have been drilled through at different localities in the oil-regions seems quite certain, so that we can have no reasonable expectation that any new and extensive field will be found which could compare in area or in the amount of oil to be obtained from it with the But- ler, Clarion, and Armstrong pool, the Oil City and Pleasantville pool, the great Bradford pool, or the Allegany pool. Prof. Lesley, in speaking of this subject in January, 1883, says: "It is certain that petroleum is not now being produced in Devonian rocks by distillation or otherwise. What has been stored up can be got out. When the reservoirs are exhausted, there will bean end of it. The discovery of a few more pools of two or three million barrels each can make little difference in the general result." Mr. Carl], in June of the same year, writes: " There are not at present any rea- sonable ground for anticipating the discovery of new fields which will add enough to the declining products of the old, to enable the output to keep pace with the shipments or consumption." These re- 8 THE OIL-BEG IONS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK. suits, foreshadowed by Prof. Lesley and Mr. Carll, were not gener- ally appreciated until the latter part of 1883. The irregular but, in the long run, steady decline in the daily pro- duction of petroleum from July, 1882, when the maximum average daily production for any one month was attained (105,10-5 barrels) is now generally realized. The production for any one month, or any one year may be increased very materially, over what it is at present, by renewed activity in drilling wells within the general confines of the oil region, or by working over old territory under the stimula- tion of a hungry market and high prices; but such an increase in production can only be of limited duration, since there is nothing to hope for during a decade of years but a progressive decline. In 1884, the total production of the region was 22,732,209 barrels, which* was nearly one million barrels less than the shipments; during the first eight months of the present year the production has fallen 2,022,355 barrels within the shipments. At the end of August, 1884, the maximum of stocks ever held in the oil regions was at- tained (39,084,561 barrels); two w r eeks ago (September 1,. 1885), the stocks had declined to 35,343,771 barrels. It is estimated that in July, 1883, there were in the region, 17,100 producing wells, the average daily product of which was 3.8 barrels. In July, 1884, there were 21,844 producing wells, and the average daily product was 3 barrels; and in July of this year it is estimated that there were 22,524 producing wells, the average daily product being 2.5 barrels. A defined territory, a product inadequate to meet the demand of the market for the past eighteen months, a growing market and rapidly diminishing stocks ; an increasing number of drilling and producing wells, and a rapidly falling daily average product per well, are all significant signs of a certain decline in a great industry ; and yet the average price of crude oil per barrel for the month of July, 1885 (92 J cents) was 13 \ cents less than the average price for the entire year of 1883, and only 9 cents more than the average price for 1884. In the month of August, 1885, the average price per barrel had risen to §1.00}. Although this is a great advance over the price for the preceding months of the year (January, $0.70 J, February, §0.72|, March, $0.80 J, April, #0.78 J, May, 0.79, June, * The total production for 1864, as stated by the Petroleum Reporter, was 24,772,209 barrels ; the total production given above, like all the totals made use of in this paper, was computed from the individual monthly reports, and are believed to be correct. THE OIL- REGIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORE. 9 $0.82), yet it is not as great as might reasonably be expected in view of the conditions of the petroleum industry referred to. At the Washington meeting of the Institute, held in February, 1882, the late Henry E. Wrigley read a paper on the amount of oil remain- ing in Pennsylvania and Xew York (Transactions X., 354), in which he gave the area of the oil-territory, the amount of oil produced per square mile, and estimates of the amount of territory yet to be drilled over, and of the quantity of oil which could be expected. I do not wish to make special criticism of Mr. Wrigley's statements or conclusions, but merely to say that facts did not sustain his statements, and I never accepted his conclusions. The mystery with which the operations in the oil-regions have been conducted during the last ten years, makes it extremely difficult to gather authentic particulars from the drillers or producers; and if it were not for the valuable services which Mr. Carll has rendered, as far as the records of oil wells and the geology of the region is concerned, and that which has been rendered by Mr. Stowell in the collection and publication of statistics, it would be impossible, even now, to arrive at any con- clusions bearing on the questions to which I have presumed to make brief reference in this paper. The geologists of the Pennsylvania Survey, and a few of the oil- operators who have given the subject a careful consideration, are united in believing that the general confines of the territory are defined, and it is admitted that it is in vain to drill wells, as has been done during the past year in Lycoming and Chester counties, where none of the conditions under which oil has been obtained in Pennsylvania are to be found. The fact must not be lost sight of, however, that some of the individual oil-sands have been explored within limited areas only of the oil-region proper. For instance, the Bradford sand, which has been found so prolific in the Alleghany and Bradford districts over an extent of territory 42 miles in length, and in places 15 miles in breadth, owing to its great depth below the surface, and the procurement of oil at higher horizons, has not been thoroughly explored in districts to the southwest, although this is the producing sand in the Cooper pool, and in several instances wells have pierced its horizon. In February, 1878, in a paper which I read before the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia, on the oil-sands of Pennsylvania, I referred to the discovery of the Smethport oil-sand in McKean county, about 360 feet below the bottom of the Bradford oil-sand. W hat the pos- sibilities of obtaining oil at this horizon anywhere in the oil-region 10 THE OIL-REGIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK. are, it is impossible at present to state. The horizon of this sand has been pierced by several wells, and a small show of oil has been found ; but additional wells drilled for exploring this sand may prove complete failures. It is a noted fact that no two oil-sands, one immediately above the other, have been great producers over the same extended area. I have called attention to these facts as those which may influence the extent of the production of oil in Pennsylvania and New York in the future. In 1882 Mi*. Wrigley stated that the total production to the com- mencement of that year had been 154,000,000 barrels, and that but 96,000,000 barrels of oil remained to be got. Up to the commence- ment of the present year the total product of the oil-regions was 261 ,000,000 barrels, as shown by the accompanying chart. That the product has passed its meridian, there is no question, but what the total aggregate for the future will be, it would be folly to estimate. That the product per well will be less, and the cost of producing one barrel much more than in the past, experience would seem to prove. These, with other collateral facts connected with the production, manufacture, and consumption of the product will make the exhaustion of the field a gradual one ; and it is probable that long before every barrel of oil shall have been taken out of the oil -sands, the cost of production per barrel will be so great, that the oil-men's occupation in Pennsylvania and New York will be gone. It is hardly probable that the Japanese practice of excavat- ing a vertical shaft 600 feet in depth to obtain a few gallons of oil a day will ever prove a profitable enterprise in America.